Using microdata itemprop and itemtype for non-English websites

Question

How should I use microdata itemprop and itemtype for non-English websites? Is there a way to define vocabulary for non-English websites, and what itemprop values can be used? Are itemprop values self defined or some vocabulary must be defined first?

Answer 1

Microdata vocabularies are usually language-independent.

Take for example the vocabulary schema.org: a Movie can have the property alternativeHeadline. The expected type is Text, and it’s defined as: "A secondary title of the CreativeWork.". It doesn’t matter at all if this secondary title is in English, German, or Sindarin.

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Are itemprop values self defined or some vocabulary must be defined first?

You don’t have to use a "defined" vocabulary at all. But then don’t expect your Microdata annotations to be of any use to someone else. So typically you’ll want to use defined (well-known) vocabularies. See http://www.w3.org/TR/microdata/#selecting-names-when-defining-vocabularies.

i want to use translations form english to my language. So for example 'Movie' is translated 'Film'...So it is absolutely ok to use itemprop values on my language?

Let’s take http://schema.org/Movie as example. If you want to annotate your content with the schema.org vocabulary, and you have a movie/film, you have to use exactly this URL. It’s an identifier, not a description itself (it could have been named http://schema.org/78161, too. They only used English terms in the URL because of convenience).

If you’d use http://schema.org/Film (don’t use this!), it wouldn’t have the same meaning. Also, you should never mint new URLs which you don’t control yourself.

So you should use your own domain, e.g. http://yourdomain.example.org/Film. You can use this, yes. But then you have your own vocabulary, which has nothing to do with schema.org.

All this is similar to HTML element names. For example, you use the address element in every language, not only on English pages. It wouldn’t make sense (and it isn’t allowed) to translate <address></address> element to <адреса></адреса>.